Nominal Evaluation of Automatic Multi-Sections Control Potential in Comparison to a Simpler One- or Two-Sections Alternative with Predictive Spray Switching

Mogens Plessen ()
Additional contact information
Mogens Plessen: Findklein GmbH, 6300 Zug, Switzerland

Agriculture, 2025, vol. 15, issue 21, 1-27

Abstract: Automatic Section Control (ASC) promises to minimize spray overlap areas. The idea is to (i) switch off spray nozzles on areas that have already been sprayed, and (ii) to dynamically adjust nozzle flow rates along the boom bar that holds the spray nozzles when velocities of boom sections vary during turn maneuvers. Spraying and the movement of modern wide boom bars are highly dynamic processes with many uncertainty factors. Therefore, an Automatic Multi-Sections Control method is compared to a proposed simpler one- or two-sections alternative that uses a predictive spray switching. The comparison is provided under nominal conditions. Combinations of two area coverage path planning and switching logics as well as three sections-setups are compared. These differ by controlling 48 sections, 2 sections or controlling all nozzles uniformly with the same control signal as one single section. Methods are evaluated on 10 diverse real-world field examples. An economic cost analysis is provided. A preferred method is suggested that (i) minimizes area coverage pathlength, (ii) is suitable for manual driving by following a pre-planned predictive spray switching logic for an area coverage path plan, and (iii) and in contrast to ASC can be implemented sensor-free and therefore at low cost. Surprisingly strong economic arguments are found to not recommend ASC for small farms.

Keywords: spraying; area coverage; path planning; overlap avoidance; automatic section control (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/15/21/2304/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/15/21/2304/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:15:y:2025:i:21:p:2304-:d:1788047

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().